photo by: John Young

Sarah Hess, a local chef at John Brown's Underground, uses a butane torch to roast okra during the annual Chefs Challenge at the Douglas County Fair on Wednesday evening, July 27, 2016.

As she prepared a dish Wednesday before about 120 people attending the sixth-annual Douglas County Fair’s Chefs Challenge, Sarah Hess described her cooking style as “all-American anarchy.”

To demonstrate her style, Hess, the chef at John Brown’s Underground in downtown Lawrence, employed a gas torch to char okra, which was a required ingredient in this year’s challenge. The torch served a practical purpose — the charring would help keep the okra from becoming slimy — but Hess joked she also wanted to make the appropriate impression on the three local fire chiefs who served as the event’s judges: Mike Baxter of the Wakarusa Township Fire Department, Mark Bradford of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical and Ken Keiter of the Eudora Fire Department.

Hess’ showmanship would make her style more anarchical.

photo by: John Young

This smoked American fusion dish by local chef Sarah Hess was named winner of the annual Chefs Challenge at the Douglas County Fair on Wednesday evening.

“It got a little nerve-wracking when the torch went out and I couldn’t get it restarted,” she said after her presentation.

Hess got the torch to work well enough to win the challenge against Raven Naramore of Raven’s Table Catering of Baldwin City. They were the only contestants in the competition after Meg Heriford of Ladybird Diner withdrew because of a death in her family.

Hess didn’t have a name for her dish — which included salmon, fresh tomatoes, couscous, arugula and, of course, okra — but she dubbed it “American frenzy,” when pressed.

Her 20-minute cooking presentation, which was also rated on the judges’ scorecards, was as spontaneous as her cooking style.

“I didn’t have a script,” she said. “I would have forgotten it if I had. I worried I wouldn’t have anything to say.”

That wasn’t a problem, in part, because last year’s Chefs Challenge winner, Simon Bates of The Burger Stand, kept the informative banter flowing as the event’s MC. He asked about Hess’ and Naramore’s backgrounds and focused on their shared dedication to using fresh, local food whenever possible.

Naramore, who was raised on a farm north of Lawrence, said she used food grown by local producers Tom Buller and Willing Horse Farm of Lawrence, Bauman’s Butcher Block of Ottawa, and Steve Pierce of Baldwin City, for her corn-okra pudding. Hess said she was equally devoted to local food because it tasted better and because it reduced the carbon footprint of her kitchen by reducing transportation cost.

Adding to the evening entertainment was the running joke about the featured ingredient. As she finished a demonstration poster titled “Fun Facts about Okra” before the challenge started, Laurie Walker, Douglas County Extension master food volunteer, said okra had a “bad rap.”

“It’s tasty, and there’s a lot of good things you can make with it.”

A couple of okra fun facts Walker listed were that okra is best when it’s about the size of a finger and that it was first harvested in Ethiopia.

Fellow Douglas County Extension master food volunteer Mary Locniskar said okra was selected because of its many health benefits and its presence in local gardens.

There were a number of firsts for this year’s Chefs Challenge, Locniskar said. The master food volunteers and Douglas County Extension master gardeners took over management of the event from the Douglas County Food Policy Council, which ran the challenge the first five years.

It was also the first year the challenge was held indoors, with the chefs and the audience enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of the just-finished meeting hall on the fairgrounds.

This was also the first year that audience members determined 20 percent of the contest’s outcome after enjoying a small plate of Hess’ and Naramore’s entries. They, too, slightly favored Hess when she edged Naramore with a late spike on an applause meter.